NOTES BY TELEPHONE

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3314, 25 June 1931, Page 3

NOTES BY TELEPHONE

COMING SOON? Telephones which automatically record messages at the receiving end when a "no reply" is signalled are among the improvements which the British post office soon hope to incorporate in the telephone system of the country. The apparatus, which is believed to have given the best results up to the I present is fitted with a small type- ! writing machine which is brought into action by an electrical impulse connected with the "no reply" buzzer. The sender taps out his message on a miniature typewriter keyboard, and it is recorded on a slip at the receiving end ready for the return of the absent subscriber. The Swiss and Belgian Governments have already begun to equip their telephones with this apparatus at an extra rental of only £3 a year. A modified apparatus patented in Germany reproduces the message in fascimile handwriting. Either system may be used in conjunction with ordinary telephony for the spelling out of indistinct words or difficult names. A more elaborate apparatus, which records both sides of a telephone conversation, is also being tested by the post office. A telephone subscriber has merely to obtain permission to attach a telephone receiver to a dictaphone to obtain a wax record of the complete conversation which can be reproduced at any time on a suitable gramoI phone.